Owner: Chrome’s Triple Crown bid spoiled by ‘cowards’

ELMONT — The Triple Crown drought is at 36 years and counting after California Chrome finished fourth, behind winner Tonalist, in the Belmont Stakes on Saturday.

Afterward, the Derby and Preakness winner’s co-owner, Steve Coburn, blasted the Triple Crown format, calling the horses who didn’t run all three legs “cowards.”

“I’m 61 years old, and I’ll never see in my lifetime … another Triple Crown winner because of the way they do this,” Coburn said in a nationally televised post-race interview. “It’s not fair to the horses that have been in the game since Day One.

“… This is not fair to these horses that have been running their guts out for these people and for the people that believe in them to have somebody to come up … this is the coward’s way out in my opinion, this is the coward’s way out.”

Ridden by jockey Victor Espinoza, Chrome finished in a dead heat for fourth. He was wide at the top of the stretch and lacked the extra gear that propelled him to victory in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness.